Maison des Fleurs, a French café that specializes in tea but also sells flowers, pastries and coffee, celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in downtown Homewood on Friday, Sept. 5.
Maison des Fleurs owner Lanise Swarn and Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld cut the blue ribbon with café staff and other village officials. Over a dozen of Swarn’s friends and family members attended the grand opening. They enjoyed tea and pastries, took selfies and conversed with one another.
On the sidewalk outside of the café, Maison des Fleurs server Danielle Bryant provided free samples of Sweet Like Strawberry, Blood Orange and Vanilla Chai tea. Homewood village officials and curious passersby walking down Ridge Road sipped from small cups, sampling the teas.
“Everything’s walkable in our downtown. It’s right across the street from the Post Office. So, stop by the Post Office, come across the street and look at our newest business,” Hofeld said. “It’s beautifully furnished. I encourage people to come take a look at it. It’s beautiful inside.”
Maison des Fleurs is at 1916 Ridge Road.
Maison des Fleurs serves a variety of tea, including but not limited to hot tea, iced tea, herbal tea, matcha tea, sweet tea, unsweetened tea, caffeinated tea, caffeine-free tea, green tea, white tea and red tea.
“Maison des Fleurs” is French for “house of flowers.”
“Tea comes from flowers,” Swarn said, explaining the business’s name.
While Maison des Fleurs isn’t a full-service flower shop, the café offers bouquets in its seating area. A customer can buy a bouquet off the table to give to a companion or take home.
Before opening a physical store, Maison des Fleurs was exclusively an online shop. The café is Swarn’s first brick-and-mortar business. Swarn, a resident of Dolton, has a background in mutual investment, a profession she still works in as a day job.
Swarn said she hopes Maison des Fleurs will give community members a chance to “take a moment and just breathe,” unwinding from the stresses of daily life.
The café seats have velvet cushions. One wall features a wallpaper mural depicting colorful flowers.
Swarn said that her passion for tea began in her childhood, adding that the adults in her family often enjoyed coffee together while she drank tea.
“My fondest memories are of them having coffee. They would come in for a quick chat. Whether they were arguing or fussing, it was a whole lot of cackling,” Swarn said. “[The kids in the family] couldn’t have coffee. They forbade us. But our mother, as we got older, she’d allow us to have a tea.”
Keith Anderson Jr., Swarn’s son-in-law, enjoyed tea and pastries with family members at the Maison des Fleurs grand opening.
“It’s been a long journey getting up to this point,” Anderson said. “Now, we’re excited to continuously support what Lanise, the owner, has to offer and what she’s going to be presenting throughout the year – different tea experiences and different flavors that maybe this community hasn’t seen yet.”
Maison des Fleurs is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
